


Spooktober

by saltylikecrait



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Autumn, Body Horror, Bugs & Insects, Clones, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Ficlet Collection, Fluff, Ghosts, Halloween, Horror, Humor, Possession, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prompt Fic, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-25
Packaged: 2019-07-24 23:09:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 16,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16185152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/saltylikecrait/pseuds/saltylikecrait
Summary: A collection of prompt-inspired ficlets, in which Finn and Rey are sent off to find supplies and support for the Resistance and only have experiences that are probably going to result in them needing therapy later.





	1. Vacancy

**Author's Note:**

> This is a collection of Horror/Fall prompt ficlets for the month of October. Each ficlet is done in a fifteen-minute sprint and is posted as unedited.
> 
> While I would like to do one prompt every day, I am moving to a new area and transitioning to a new job mid-October and might not have the time to sit down and do a sprint.

“Ma’am,” asked Finn. “Do you have any vacancies?”

The old woman sitting quietly at the front desk of this rundown hotel in the middle of nowhere smiled quietly and nodded. She glanced at Finn and Rey, soaked to the bone from this world’s torrential rainstorms and shivering with cold. This was what prompted them to find lodgings out of the elements. In better conditions, they would rather save the Resistance’s credits and sleep outside with the stars.

With her wrinkled and twig-like gray fingers, the woman scribbled on a note and slid it over for Finn to sign. “Sign there. That’s the price.” She then slid another paper to him. “This is your copy.”

Finn cringed at the price for a room at a hotel like this – really, he was just hoping there wasn’t a leaky roof – but he handed her the silver and gold credits. He hated carrying around credits like this physically, but he knew it was better than using a traceable credit stick. This is how it had to be.

“And don’t mind the other guests,” she said. “They’re regulars of ours and they can be… quite the handful.” The woman giggled almost to herself.

Rey eyed her wearily, but took the keycard from the woman without a word.

When she and Finn walked up the stairs to the second floor, she glanced around. “Have you… seen other guests?”

Finn stopped and listened. “I don’t hear anyone,” he told her.

“That’s what I thought,” said Rey. “Something’s… odd in the Force. I can feel a presence, but its faint.”

“Is it sentient?” asked Finn. “Or maybe this hotel is bigger than it looks.” He shrugged. Really, he was just trying to be logical to put both himself and Rey at ease.

Finding their room, they slid the card key into the reader and unlocked the door. The furnishings were spartan, and there was only one bed and a sad-looking couch, but it would do for the night.

“You take the bed,” Finn offered.

Rey rolled her eyes. “Who’s the one with the back injury?” she asked.

“That was months ago. I’m healed,” Finn insisted.

Their argument over the bed continued as they took turns to dry off in the ‘fresher. Finn insisted that Rey take it, but Rey countered by insisting that Finn take it. The argument quickly became circular, and it was going nowhere fast.

A half-hour of drying off and arguing later, they still hadn’t decided on sleeping arrangements.

“Rey, seriously. Just take-“

Finn was interrupted by a low moan coming outside of the room. It echoed off the walls and sent a chill down his spine. Rey looked equally alarmed by the sound.

“What was that?” she whispered.

“Dunno,” he said. “Should I look out-?”

“No!” Rey held up her hands to stop him. “Are you crazy? That’s how people die in those horror holos!”

“Right,” Finn said. “Right. I’m just gonna stay in here until morning. Right here. Safe in here.”

The moaning started again.

Finn and Rey looked at each other before launching themselves into the bed and huddling close under the scratchy old quilt that had covered it.

“We’ll just… share the bed tonight,” said Rey. “For safety.”

“Right,” Finn said again as he stared obsessively at the door. “Safety.”

“The door’s locked right?”

He made a quick glance at the lock. “Yep.”

“Good.”

And for extra security, Rey left her new lightsaber hilt on the end table next to her.


	2. Harvest

They came across a very dark and honestly, a very sinister old temple in their travels. Rey, for as much as she denied the dark side, kept feeling drawn to the unknown of whatever was in the temple and wanted to explore. Finn was weary, but at least she wasn’t going in without him. Surely he could remove her from the lure of the dark side if push came to shove.

Which is sort of what happened.

They were surprised and horrified by what they found in the main chamber in the temple. Black flowers sprouted in every crack and crevice of the walls and floors and at first glance, were kind of a strange sort of beautiful in this long-forgotten place. Rey approached the flowers to get a better look when she had struck her foot against something solid.

She had stumbled upon a body.

After her initial scream of terror, she inspected to see how long ago this person died. It seemed fresh enough, though the state of the skin said otherwise. The real problem with trying to tell how long the body had been there was that it was covered with those black flowers, which seemed to have rooted into the skin of this unfortunate human and sprouted forth.

That might at least clear up the cause of death.

“Finn, I think we need to get out of here. Now.”

He then glanced at the body and saw what exactly what she was getting at. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I think we’d better-“

But before he could finish, the body twitched and reached its arm suddenly out to grab at Rey’s ankle. She jumped away before it could touch her and ignited her lightsaber. The blue light of the duel blades illuminated the dark temple further and gave them a slightly better look at what they were seeing.

The man must definitely be dead, but somehow he was animate and now getting up to walk towards them.

And Rey could bet that those black flowers had something to do with it.

Finn shot at the body with his blaster, hoping to see it crumple to the ground. Instead, it stumbled a little with the impact of each bolt but continued on its way towards them. Its mouth hung wide open, salivating, like it was a starving man getting his first meal in weeks.

Actually, whatever this thing was, that might be what it was intending.

“What is _this?”_ Rey half-screamed as she ran her lightsaber through the body of her attacker.

“And why won’t it _die?”_ Finn answered with another question because the man kept getting up to lunge at them.

He shot at it again, towards the stomach this time and just like the first couple of shots he made, nothing happened.

“This isn’t doing anything!” He dodged out of the way, just before the creature could lunge at him again.

Rey sounded panicked now. “I think it is _dead,”_ she declared. “But not quite dead.”

 _“Mostly dead?”_ Finn replied with a note of sarcasm.

 _“Finn,”_ she groaned as she swiped the saber at the creature in an attempt to get it to leave her alone. “Not the time. It’s more like _un_ -dead.”

“Like that’s any better?”

Finally, Rey realized that she would have try to decapitate the creature so it couldn’t follow them anymore. She intended to slash through the middle of the abdomen, to sever the top half from the bottom half of the body. If it could still move, at least legs weren’t threatening and it would be too slow to catch them if it had to drag itself by the arms.

Instead, she missed in her panic and cut the creature’s head clean off its neck.

Rey screamed as the head rolled on the floor towards her.

But it seemed to do the trick, for suddenly, the body fell back to the floor and was still. Just as a dead body should be.

That still didn’t stop them from sprinting out of the temple.

“You got a match or something?” Finn asked while he panted to catch his breath when they were safely out.

Rey nodded and searched her side bag, removing a packet of matches and giving it to him.

Finn approached the temple and lit one of the matches, holding it against a stray vine and hoping he wasn’t about to burn down the whole forest around them in the process. Those flowers needed to die though. He couldn’t sleep soundly again if he knew they were still around.

“Good call,” Rey said as they stood back and watched the temple burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This ficlet was loosely based on the novel _Red Harvest._


	3. Haunted

“Ghost house?” Rey asked as she took a bite of her scrambled Aiwha egg. She glanced once more at the flyer on the diner counter, clearly trying to make sense of it.

Finn seemed equally confused. “Is this… some sort of entertainment thing?”

The human waitress tried to explain again. “Something like that. You’ve arrived in time for our harvest festival, which also takes place around our Day of Remembrance. We like to try to scare each other for fun during the festival. Dress up in scary costumes. Eat sweets. Party. It’s all for fun before the serious holiday happens. So this year, we’re hosting a ghost house.”

“And are actual _ghosts_ there?” Rey had seen her share of Force ghosts and wandering spirits at this point. While most of them tried to be at least pleasant when speaking to her, she had encountered a few hostiles that tried to… well, _possess_ her body. She’d rather not experience that again.

The waitress laughed. “No, no. Not real ghosts, though I’m sure someone’s going to throw a sheet over their head at some point.”

Finn and Rey exchanged confused looks.

“Well,” said Finn, “we enjoy horror holos and it’s just for fun, right? It couldn’t hurt.”

So a few hours later, the pair found themselves in a rickety old barn where the locals used to house nesting Aiwha, decorated to look sinister.

Actually, Finn thought some of it looked pretty gaudy, but who was he to judge? It was a local custom, after all.

“Enter, if you dare,” a child dressed in shredded clothing that had been splattered with red to look like blood growled in the most convincing voice that he could. Finn had to keep himself from laughing, putting on probably his worst attempt of a scared face ever.

“Alright, then,” said Rey as she led the way.

It wasn’t particularly scary in the barn. Laughable, maybe. Finn had seen his share of real horrors during his life in the First Order and during the war. Seeing a guy get blown in half on a minefield? Terrifying. Watching a Gungan make a bad attempt at pretending to be eaten alive by a guy wearing an inflatable fish costume? Pretty hilarious.

Finn did think it was pretty nice to see the local species set aside their differences to have some fun, though. He hoped that during the harvest festival, he and Rey could convince some of the locals to ally with the Resistance in this war to protect their customs and their future.

They approached what Finn believed to be the last leg of the barn. A makeshift tunnel soon became their only option to move forward. He guessed that it was probably going to lead them outside, where the promise of warm drinks awaited them.

Then, a few steps into the tunnel, he felt something moving through his hair.

Looking up, he spotted something dark dangling from the ceiling. It had twelve appendages, way too many eyes, and a mouth that reminded him too much like a rathtar.

But in that quick glance upward, he jumped and unconsciously grabbed for Rey’s hand, taking the lead now and walking very fast out of the tunnel. He didn’t even stop to check to see if the creature was real or not. All his mind told him was to get out of there.

“Finn?” she asked.

He didn’t answer her; only kept walking.

“Are you scared?”

“No!”

When they reached the outside, he took a deep breath and tried to slow his rapidly beating heart. Rey stood next to him, frowning.

“Something happened,” she observed. “You look frightened.”

He huffed in another breath. “Saw those _things_ dangling above us,” he told her. “Reminded me of those rathtars. Made me think of those rathtars.” He paused. “Kriff, I got scared of a prop, didn’t I?” He was almost too embarrassed to look at her.

Rey looked at him in sympathy and wrapped her arms around his middle, pulling herself close to his side. “Hey,” she soothed. “It’s okay to be scared of that. You have… We _both_ know how terrified we were of rathtars. But we’re here now. Alive. And those things weren’t real.”

“I know.” He reached to take her hand again.

Rey grinned as she looked down at their hands. “And in the future, just remember that I’ll protect you from those things. Real or not.”


	4. Forgotten

The dark side often whispers to her. Tempting her. Luring her. When she doesn’t give into it, it shows her visions of death and chaos; of a galaxy that Rey hopes that she will never live to see.

The visions have particularly been awful since her run in with the black flowers and the reanimated dead body.

Tonight, Jakku is a world of black and white and sand. She is scavenging the skeleton of what remains of a Star Destroyer, downed in the last battle that the Empire had ever fought. She has since moved in to live in it, finding herself lucky that she had managed to find a Star Destroyer so intact and untouched by the other scavengers. She even found a hoard of ration packs and cubes, enough to sustain her for years if she was careful enough.

But the desert is quickly reclaiming it.

She also finds it odd that she has no encountered anyone else in her exploration. Surely someone else would have either followed her in from town or come across this place on accident? She hasn’t seen a soul in days…

But she doesn’t put too much thought into it. If anything, she is thankful for the quiet and the lack of competition. She has already gathered scraps that she could exchange for credits instead. And if she saves up enough credits…

No, Rey reminds herself. She has to stay here for a reason. For a family that promised to return for her. There is no room to dream of purchasing her own ticket off this dustbowl. So she keeps working day after day until she is ready to take her haul in to exchange.

Her speeder is almost too loaded up with metal scraps to stay upright, but Rey manages. She grins the entire ride as she thinks about how she gets a choice of what to exchange her load for this time. She doesn’t just have to exchange for food today, maybe she could search around for parts to update her simulator. Maybe exchange something for new material for clothing. Whatever she wants.

But suddenly, she is pushed back with a solid force, flying off of her speeder as it crashes to the sand on its side. A little dazed from the shock of it, she looks around to see if a sandstorm is brewing and she just felt the first warning signs of a strong wind.

But nothing… The wind and sands are calm.

Frowning, she grabs her speeder and remounts, shifting it into gear and trying to continue on her way.

The pushback happens again. Softer this time because she was not going as fast, but it stops her from going any further.

She holds her hand out and touches something. It reminds her of a wall but she sees nothing. Even when she walks a few feet it happens again. Then she tries once more after traveling a quarter mile with her speeder along the invisible force’s perimeter.

Rey is trapped here.

Confused, she travels back to the Star Destroyer and waits to see if anything new happens.

The sand continues to bury the world around her and she realizes that this is happening too fast and she keeps glimpsing streams of sand falling from above, adding to the amount already here.

…That’s not possible.

Her heart races and pounds as she looks around, desperate for any way out than to be buried alive by sand. She is the only one here. Alone. Forgotten. No one is going to find her or be able to help her.

The dark side almost seems to chuckle as it turns her mind inside out. Almost as if her eyes are a camera for a holo, it makes her vision pan back, revealing the world surrounding her is encased in an hour glass left in the middle of a dark void…

It does not speak words, but it wants to remind her that she is a slave to time and that time keeps slipping from her grasp until she runs out of it or until it crushes her under its measurable weight.

The sand keeps rising.

She wakes in her sleeping bag on the floor of a cave and sighs when she realizes that she’s back in reality.

Finn is next to her and she feels blessed by this. She has not woken him, to her relief, but his presence is comforting to her.

And then, he moves just a little closer to her, like he can unconsciously sense that she needs him. She tries to lose herself in the warmth that he provides next to her.

But the night is far from over.


	5. Hacked

Their footsteps clanking as their boots made contact with the floor of the _Falcon’s_ corridors, Finn and Rey panted as they tried to make it to a safe place. Preferably in a room with a door that locked.

“Is he still following us?” asked Finn, not wanting to stop to check.

But Rey kept running. “Don’t wanna find out. He probably isn’t keeping up,” she thought out loud, “but still keeping chase.”

Something had gone terribly wrong with R2-D2. One moment, their old droid buddy had been happily exploring the town they had stopped in to get supplies from, and the next moment he was waving his utility arms around angrily and stunning Chewbacca in the cockpit. Now the Wookie was slump unconscious on the floor by the pilot’s seat.

At first, Finn had thought that R2 had been angry with them for some reason. His behavior had been a little erratic, but nothing that raised any red flags. The droid was old and had a lot of quirks to him. But that display had sent him off the edge and now he was hunting down Finn and Rey in the middle of space.

He briefly thought of how his fellow cadets used to joke about how in space, no one could hear you scream, but now the actual reality of that was horrifying.

And then, he realized in their blind running that they had just come to a dead end.

_“Kriff.”_

They turned around, hoping to still have time to make it to another room, when R2 turned the corner with his electro-shock prod ready for use.

And neither of them had a weapon to fight back with, though Finn would rather not hurt R2 if he could help it.

Just as he could sense that Rey was about to try to make a lunge for it - either to attack the droid or to try to get past him, Finn was not sure – he noticed something off about R2’s appearance. One of his compartments was open and a small black device had been inserted into a drive.

Someone had tampered with him. And Finn could bet that whoever it was, they were tied to the First Order somehow.

Which meant that if he could remove that thing, R2 might go back to normal.

Rey had obviously not caught sight of the device, as she tried to slide her way past R2 but had to jump back to keep from getting shocked. Whatever he had set it to had been enough to take down a Wookie and Finn didn’t want to know what that sort of jolt would do to a human.

Then, he charged for the device. It wasn’t his best plan, seeing that Finn was getting right in range of getting zapped, but he knew he had to at least try.

Luckily, he was able to get his footing as he used his strength to push R2 over. It shocked the droid for a moment while the droid was trying to flail his utility arms and use his base to right himself again. Finn took that moment to pluck the device out.

The droid went silent and stopped moving.

Finn and Rey looked at each other before Rey called out: “Artoo?”

For another moment, the droid was unmoving until he made a small series of beeps and righted himself again. Rebooting, R2 began to circle itself in the corridor, as if trying to figure out where he was and what he was just doing. Then with an annoyed beeping sound, he moved out of sight.

Finn glanced at Rey again, who just shrugged. “I guess removing that thing wiped his memory.”

He nodded in agreement, then tossed the device to the ground and stomped his foot on it, smashing it until he could see the ripped wires and the side of the chip inside it. Then, he picked the device up.

“I think we’ll need to send this to Connix or someone,” he said. “See if anyone can find the device’s origin.”

Rey hummed in agreement. “And in the meantime, we’re gonna have to keep a closer watch on our droid.”


	6. Replacement

At first, they thought nothing of it. It didn’t seem odd to get a message from General Organa that she was shipping C-3PO to them to deliver a message and they were all too happy to receive the protocol droid, especially R2-D2, who was missing his old friend.

He was sent to them in a pod that they had to pick up in space. It was a tricky maneuver to do, but Rey and Chewbacca had done this before. They had to match the path of the drifting pod and catch it in the open cargo port of the _Millennium Falcon._

 _That_ part went without a hitch, at least.

“Ah, Miss Rey. Mr. Finn. A pleasure to see you again,” C-3PO greeted as he stepped out of the pod.

He stumbled a little as he walked, but he seemed alright after a few minutes.

“Threepio,” Rey asked, “are your sensors a little off right now? I could help.”

The droid startled. “Oh, umm… that won’t be necessary. I was planning to have my movement sensors checked and replaced when I get back to the New Repub- the _Resistance!”_

His correction was odd, but Finn had heard him say something in a similar fashion when he had confused Leia Organa’s titles. He figured it was nothing.

But then C-3PO walked past poor R2 without a word of greeting or even a glance, almost as if the droids were strangers. R2 beeped something quickly to him before rolling up to Finn and Rey.

“Artoo says that that’s not Threepio,” translated Rey.

Finn was shocked. “What? How can that be right? Are you sure Artoo?” He crouched down to be at level with the droid as he spoke to him. “Maybe he’s had a malfunction or a memory wipe.”

They glanced at each other, both knowing what the other was thinking with just a look. Only a few days ago, someone had tampered with R2-D2 and now there was a droid that wasn’t C-3PO in the same space as them.

Rey took Finn to the side. “Does the First Order normally send droids on missions?” she whispered.

He shook his head. “Not normally,” he told her. “But they might this time if they think that’s the only way they can get someone close to us.”

She sighed. “Or they’re trying to trick us into giving up information.”

“That too.”

With a frown, they went to the living quarters where Chewbacca was growling profanities at the protocol droid.

“Sir,” said the droid, “I must insist-“

“No need,” said Finn. “We know you’re not who you say you are.”

“So why don’t you tell us why you’re here,” Rey added.

The droid paused, looked around, then hunched over in defeat. He sighed. “Well, I guess General Hux wasted his money on me.”

At the mention of that name, Rey reached for her lightsaber clipped to her belt. She gripped the hilt, ready to strike if she needed to.

The droid startled again and raised his stiff limbs. “Oh no!” he exclaimed. “No, no. I mean you no harm. I… what’s the term? ‘I come in peace.’”

But Rey would not lower her weapon. “Why should I trust anything you say?”

“I-“ the droid began again. “It’s true, you shouldn’t. Hux had me commissioned to intercept you and get information from you to relay back to him. But he was not happy with me and sent me here anyway. Either to succeed or fail, he didn’t care.”

This time, Finn was the one to frown. He didn’t like the implications. Either the droid was telling the truth, or he was using a sob story to gain their sympathy.

“So I can see I have already failed,” said the droid. He turned to Rey. “If you could, Miss, I’d rather be shut down than go back to the First Order. “Hux will have me scrapped for parts.”

She turned her lightsaber in her hands, thinking. “You promise you are not lying?”

“Oh! Welll, yes. What I said is true.”

Rey sighed and turned back to Finn. “We can’t… I can’t do that to him,” she said. “It doesn’t feel right.”

Finn wasn’t quite sure what to do either. “If you have a plan, I’ll follow it,” he told her.

She nodded, then walked over to the droid, though still with caution. “What do we call you?” she asked.

“Ex-nine-cee-nine,” the droid pronounced.

“And if we set rules and let you stay with us for a while, you promise to follow those rules?”

X-9C9 paused. “I guess that would be fair, if I don’t have to go back.”

Rey nodded. “I don’t quite trust you, but if there isn’t any funny business going on, I don’t see why you can’t stay onboard for a while. I’ll look you over for any bugs first, but afterwards, we can get you to a port. Maybe find you a new home. You fluent in any languages?”

“Two million,” said the protocol droid. “I’m afraid I am lacking from what your other droid has programmed.”

Finn laughed. “If you aren’t prone to walking into the wrong place at the wrong time, you’ll be an improvement.”

The droid looked back and forth between the two humans and the Wookie, who nodded at him encouragingly. “Well, this is going much better than I thought it would. But I must warn you that this paint job on me is not my original and I think it will wear off in a few days. Don’t want to startle you all.”

“Noted,” said Finn. “Welcome to the crew, Ex-nine.”

But R2-D2 was not happy with the arrangement and tried to make it known by repeatedly rolling into Rey’s side. She smiled softly as she crouched back down to him.

“I know you don’t trust him, Artoo. Believe me, we don’t quite either. But if he’s a droid that really does need help, you’d want to help him, right?”

Artoo beeped in agreement and a little bit in guilt.

Rey patted him on the dome of his head. “It’s only for a little while. We’ll just find him a place where he’ll find a better home… or you know, eject him into space if he is still working with the First Order.” She grimaced at the thought.


	7. Reflection

Rey had not wanted to return back to Ach-To, but on their “tour of the galaxy,” as X-9C9 liked to call it, they decided that they needed to take a break for a day to stay away from the chaos and disorder of the war. Chewbacca would, at the very least, be able to try to patch in an update to the Resistance in hopes that they would respond.

“So what do we add to the report?” Rey thought out loud as she was trying to help Chewbacca. “Creepy hotels? Flowers that make the dead move again? Definitely the part about the droids…”

Chewbacca moaned in agreement.

Meanwhile, Finn decided that he wanted to take a look around the island. Rey still didn’t like to talk much about what happened here, but she had agreed to show him around when she was done. He could do something useful while he waited for her, like check the cargo bay and do a supply count, but he had been experiencing cabin fever and the smell of the fresh air was too tempting.

He wandered around the perimeter of the island, taking in the ocean and the smell of salt and rain in the air. It wasn’t a paradise, but the sense of loneliness that the island created with its rocky and barren terrain and quiet atmosphere brought a sense of calm to him that no other world had yet given him.

But there was something up with this island. Finn couldn’t quite explain it, but it felt like the forces of light and darkness were at work here. Maybe it was just his imagination because he knew of the history of this island as the location of the first Jedi temple…

Along one of the cliffs, Finn came across a strange horizontal gap. Standing next to it, he could feel a draft of air coming from it, telling him that it might not be a cave after all. Curiosity winning, he squeezed into the gap, emerging from the other side on another ledge that was almost sea-level.

And there was a hole where the sea water drained when the tide came in…

There was something about that hole that drew his attention. He found it strange because normally, he would not find a natural structure like this too remarkable. Finn drew closer to the hole to peer inside.

He saw nothing but darkness and realized that the hole was nothing special. Sighing, he turned himself around to leave and resume his exploration of the island when something seemed to grab his ankles and drag him down.

Before he could process what had happened, he hit freezing cold water and tried to swim out as quickly as he could. Luckily, his hand managed to find a solid edge and he used all his strength to pull himself up.

Looking around, Finn saw nothing remarkable in the cave. It looked to be a typical sea cave, carved out from years of weathering away from the water beating against the cliff. He stood up, cold and soaked through, and looked around to find a way out.

Then he came to a glistening wall against the far end of the cave. At first, he thought that the wall had iced over from the cold, but he did not recall seeing any frost on the sea grasses along the island. He approached the wall to get a better look.

He saw himself as a reflection and gasped because to his logic, the ice should not be doing this. It was a perfectly clear reflection, as if he were looking right into a mirror.

But then he saw a paradox of himself. One Finn’s reflection lining up after another in an endless line. It made his brain feel fuzzy and queasy.

The reflection changed again.

He saw himself as if he were looking into the future, but some of those futures would never come true. There was Finn, the Stormtrooper captain, a killing machine without a thought to his name – the First Order had seen to that.

Then there was Finn the hero. Waving around a lightsaber with a blaster strapped to his back in case he needed to fight at a distance. He would free the worlds under First Order control, giving them back their autonomy and allowing them to know peace once more.

But the last one might have been his favorite. Finn the father. Him holding a newborn in his arms that had his nose and hair, but the rest of the baby’s face reminded him so much of Rey…

Until Kylo Ren snatched the baby from his arms and Finn was desperate to take the child back.

A lightsaber ignited, red and angry, poised to strike the crying baby on the ground…

Finn startled himself out of his trance, realizing that he might have been staring into the reflection for a while. His boots were now covered with water.

“Better get out of here,” he said to himself as he looked around for an exit.

He managed to get himself back to the warmth of the Falcon without falling over from his shivering. His legs felt heavy and he really wanted to dry off and change.

Rey was standing nearby, rocking back and forth on her ankles while waiting in worry. When she saw him, her eyes widened and she ran to him.

“Oh, Finn,” she breathed. “You’re soaking.”

“F-f-fell into the water.” His teeth chattered.

She helped him into the freighter and grabbed him a towel from a nearby closet. He took it gratefully.

But she frowned as she peered over him and the state he was in. “Where did you go?” she asked.

He was starting to feel warmer already and his shivering had started to calm down. “F-found some s-sort of c-cave,” he explained. “A r-really creepy cave. S-showed me things. B-bad things.”

Her eyes widened again and she placed another towel over his shoulders. Then, without another word, Rey wrapped her arms around him. Her body felt warm, but everything else about her told him that she understood what he was talking about and sad that he even saw the cave at all.


	8. Asylum

“So this is the place?” Finn looked up at the abandoned building. The boarded-up windows and rotting wood paneling were a stark contrast to the renovated Imperial era medical facilities nearby.

X-9C9 confirmed it. “According to R2-D2’s map, this is the Merisee Asylum. Abandoned after the new Mental Health ward was founded.”

“And there was a possible Jedi housed here once?” asked Rey.

“Rumored,” said 9C9.

Finn and Rey glanced at each other and sighed in unison. They were already growing tired of these obvious shenanigans they were walking into, but even Finn agreed that there might be something here worth their time. A file or a clue about who this Jedi was or why they were there. Maybe even a confiscated relic if they were lucky.

So they approached the building and Rey propped up the broken door panels so that they would have a space to enter and exit.

The asylum had been left in a state of disarray and decay. What wasn’t bolted down or rendered obsolete by new technology had been left to rot. They found overturned chairs and devices that Finn might have once associated with reconditioning. In any case, it didn’t seem like a place that you would want to leave a loved one. He doubted they had gotten the proper care they needed.

To be blunt, he did not like this one bit.

Rey removed a glowlight from her bag and handed him one. Turning them on, he found that the light made the abandoned building seem a little less eerie than he first observed, but it didn’t help much. There was just something about this place that sent a chill down his spine.

They wandered down a corridor that looked to be where the administrative offices were once held. That would probably be the best place to start for a search for any lost objects. He guessed there might have been forgotten paperwork left behind, not important enough to keep decades after the asylum closed.

But the first couple of offices were empty, saved for a couple of desks and economy chairs with a few scattered files torn and yellowing with age.

And there were no interesting Jedi objects to be found.

Finn turned to Rey. “Do you… sense anything. Can you do that with objects?”

She scrunched up her nose. “Sorta? Something’s off about this place but I’m not sure if it’s Force-related or just me.”

He totally understood what she was getting at.

They wandered around the corridor for a little while longer while the droids explored the living wards. Nothing came up.

Defeated, they decided to go get the droids and call it a day.

Then, they heard something. Footsteps.

At first, they thought that 9C9 was heading back their way, which would make their lives a whole lot easier. But Finn noticed something. The footsteps did not have the mechanical clatter that he would associate with the protocol droid. No, the footsteps sounded like they came from an organic species. Was someone else here?

They peered outside the corridor, into the ward and looked around. There was no one there.

Finn frowned. “You heard that too, right-?”

The footsteps sounded again, only this time, it was at the pace of running.

The pair looked around for the source again, not wanting to move but not wanting to stay put either.

That was when something flung itself at Rey and she fell backwards with the force of it. She growled at the invisible force as she tried to pull away from it, struggling against it as if she were grasping onto something and holding it under her body weight to keep it still.

“It’s…” she gasped. “There’s something here.”

And just as Finn got over his initial shock to go over and help her, Rey stopped struggling and sat up, panting from the exertion. In her arms sat a pyramid shaped object, metallic blue in color. He wasn’t quite sure what it was.

 _“Take care of it…”_ a whisper sounded in the corridor.

Finn felt another chill go down his spine.

“So… creepy,” Rey shuddered.

He nodded in agreement.

“Oh!” came a familiar voice. “Miss Rey! Mr. Finn! Are you two alright?”

“We’re fine, Nine-cee-nine,” said Finn. He helped Rey up and they looked over the object again. “You know what this is?” He pointed to the pyramid.

The protocol droid looked it over. “I’m afraid not,” he said.

But R2 beeped something, as if in familiarity.

“Artoo says its some sort of Jedi comm,” translated Rey. “Or… something like that.”

“And what about that voice?” asked Finn.

Rey shrugged. “I don’t have the slightest idea,” she confessed.


	9. Horseman

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, some much-needed fluff.

_“Just then the shadowy object of alarm put itself in motion, and with a scramble and a bound stood at once in the middle of the road. Though the night was dark and dismal, yet the form of the unknown might now in some degree be ascertained. He appeared to be a horseman of large dimensions, and mounted on a black horse of powerful frame…”_

“Finn, what’s a horse?” Rey asked.

They curled up in one of the _Millennium Falcon’s_ bunks together, reading to each other from a datapad, as they did almost every night. There was so much they needed to catch up on in the way of literature and holos. It also was a nice way to enjoy quiet time together.

He thought for a moment. “Umm… they’re like those fathiers I showed you. But smaller.”

Rey shrugged. She’d look it up later.

“This story sounds _ancient,”_ she sighed. “Where’d you say it was from again?”

“No one knows,” Finn answered. “It was found once on a relic of space station decades ago on Geonosis. From what I heard, the linguists had a heck of a time deciphering the original language.”

Snuggling in closer to him, she decided to take over for the rest of the story.

_“In one part of the road leading to the church was found the saddle trampled in the dirt; the tracks of horses’ hoofs deeply dented in the road, and evidently at furious speed, were traced to the bridge, beyond which, on the bank of a broad part of the brook, where the water ran deep and black, was found the hat of the unfortunate Ichabod, and close beside it a shattered pumpkin.”_

At the end of the story, they paused for a moment and took it all in.

“I don’t think I like this story,” said Finn. “Didn’t anyone go looking for the guy?”

Rey laughed. “I couldn’t understand it half the time anyway.” She then had a thought. “You know, with all the stuff that’s been happening to us, we could probably write our own horror stories.”

Finn thoughtfully stroked her back as he imagined what they would write about. Then he grinned. “Sure, let’s rewrite the Jedi texts and add in our own stuff. Scare the children for the next millennium.”

Humming in agreement, Rey slumped a bit more on Finn’s shoulder. “That’ll teach the younglings from ignoring their masters.”

And over the ridiculousness of their plan, Finn and Rey looked at each other and smiled so widely that it almost hurt. Their laugther echoed in the quiet of the sleeping quarters.


	10. Sacrifice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so while I was on my break an writing this, my boss interrupted me to do an exit survey and when I came back to this prompt, I found that I had forgotten where I was going with this >_<

So the day was going nothing like they planned.

Finn had thought it would be romantic to take Rey out for a picnic in this forest that they encountered on their latest planetside visit. The world was unexplored and didn’t even have a name, but it sure was beautiful with its exotic flora and fauna. Rey kept glancing at it with wide and excited eyes and Finn caught on to her longing to walk among the trees.

And it started as romantic. Finn had packed a lunch and led her by the hand through the woods where they found a nice sunny spot next to a giant mushroom. It had been nice for about an hour.

But then they heard strange chatter in the distance, like unintelligible yelling and chanting. As the sound grew nearer, they grew more nervous and decided to make a run.

Of course, they fell into a trap and before they knew it, they were tangled in a net and pinned closely to the ground.

Rey spat out a mouth full of dirt and dead leaves as she fumbled for her lightsaber. The problem with having it clipped to her belt was that she could not call it with the Force without taking her belt and trousers with her.

And then, out of the bushes, jumped a group of oddly clothes, masked beings.

Children.

They prodded at them with spears and Finn tried to swipe them away in warning.

Why were there children out here alone? And more importantly, why were they acting like they were hunting Finn and Rey? He might not have had a great upbringing, but even Rey would agree with him that free ranged children in groups wasn’t the wisest of parenting choices.

Maybe they were orphans.

In any case, the children had began to drag the net across the ground, taking them to Force-knew-where.

Rey was oddly quiet as she watched the children work together to drag them away.

The children sang an odd tune on their path. It was eerie to the pair’s ears. Harmonized, but otherworldly. He had never heard kids sing almost in perfect unison and on-key like this.

After a few minutes of being dragged, the children stopped at a clearing and brought Finn and Rey to the center of the clearing. A stone circle had been made, and around that, rocks marked four points with etched markings that Finn had never seen before.

The singing started again. Smoke began to rise from the stones, their etchings glowing red.

“Okay,” Rey whispered. “Not sticking around for this. Can you get my lightsaber?”

He fumbled for a bit as he tried to reach his arms through the tight netting to reach the clip on her belt. Not waiting to hand it over to her, Finn ignited the saber himself and dragged it through the ropes of the net. The suddenly light and sound of rope snapping startled the children and as Finn waited for Rey to crawl out and stand up, he waved the weapon as a warning to them, to keep them away.

“Yeah, just stay back,” he yelled.

One of the children got too close for comfort and lunged at them. Sinking its teeth into the leg of Rey’s trousers, she yelped and tried to shake him off.

The mask fell off the child, revealing a very pale face and eyes that were a radioactive green.

“I don’t think these are humans,” she gasped.

And without another word, the pair ran for it. The children gave chase.

“Chewie!” Finn yelled into his comm link. “Lower the ramp and get ready to fly off!”


	11. Rebirth

At first, they thought nothing of it. Space had its share of oddities and unknowns that messed up comms and systems. Surely this was nothing different?

The long-abandoned Imperial space station said otherwise.

There was a long discussion between the crew of what was to be done. Ultimately, it was agreed that a short exploration couldn’t hurt if they wore their life-support suits. Perhaps, Chewbacca had pointed out, they would find some important old relics that might be of use to the fallen New Republic.

So Finn and Rey decided to go in for a few minutes just to check things out. They wanted to bring R2-D2 with them, but they had no idea if gravity was stable in the station.

To their shock, not only were life support systems in place and oxygen was plentiful in the station, but a couple of decades-old droids were still manning it. They paid the humans no mind as they kept to their work, checking consoles and cleaning floors. Even with a minimal crew, the station almost looked like it was brand new.

Puzzled, Finn furrowed his brows as they wandered the halls.

There didn’t look to be anything of much importance here. Rey wondered out loud if this was once a temporary station for Imperials to stop in on during long trips. The tech seemed nothing special, as old as it was. Even the crew quarters set aside in case sentients came on board looked to be for temporary use.

Nothing was out of the ordinary until they came to a locked port. And locks were a sure thing to pique Rey’s curiosity.

She ended up under one of the floor panels to find a way to unlock the thing. It didn’t take long. If anyone was an expert on Imperial space structures and their inner workings, it was Rey.

When the door slid open, Rey popped back up with a grin on her face.

But they were disappointed again to find nothing out of the ordinary. It seemed to be just a typical cargo bay.

That is, until they came across a stasis pod.

The window to see into the pod was fogged after years of use, making it impossible to see in. They couldn’t even tell if it was empty or not.

“I don’t think it is,” said Rey. “I sense a life in there, through the Force.”

And so it was decided that they would wake the person inside and take them with them. It didn’t seem right to leave someone to eventually die in stasis. Pods could last for centuries if kept powered, but all things eventually would come to an end.

Finn hit the button to start the defreezing process.

A human man, pale with even lighter hair woke from stasis for the first time in decades. When he opened his eyes, they tinted a sickly yellow as he stared at his saviors and grinned.

“Children,” he said. “Tell me: what year is it?”

“Thirty-six years after the Battle of Yavin,” Finn responded. He hoped that would clarify enough to the man. Surely if he was an Imperial, he would know of the Battle of Yavin.

The man laughed. “That long?” He looked to the lightsaber at Rey’s side. “And have the Jedi risen again?”

Rey tilted her head, weary of the man. “Not yet,” she told him. “Now tell us who you are.”

He sighed. “Are you telling me that the youth of this generation no longer recognize the face of their Emperor?”

Finn gasped as Rey activated her lightsaber. The blades were positioned in a defensive position, ready to strike if necessary.

“How are you still alive?” asked Finn. “Didn’t Luke Skywalker kill you?”

With a laugh, Palpatine tossed his head back. “Did he tell the galaxy that? Is he the hero of that story? No, boy. The real murderer in that tale was my own apprentice, Darth Vader.” As if testing his power, his hands flickered with static. “I had planned this for years. My own Empire would not outlive me. I would give the order upon my death for its own self-destruction and I would allow myself to never die. This body that you see before you is a clone’s and the dark side allowed me to transfer my life to it.”

He looked right at Rey. “But these bodies age too quickly. The dark side is too much for them. But you, my dear, would make a wonderful vessel.”

Without listening to more, Rey ran for it and Finn followed right behind her.

The clone gave chase.

To their luck, it seemed that the clone had not yet regained full power. Years of being in stasis would have disconnected the body from the dark side, leaving it needing time to readjust to living.

But that didn’t stop Palpatine from shooting bolts of lightning at them.

“Wait, so he has lightning?” screamed Finn. “Can you do that? Is that a Force thing?”

“I don’t know!” Rey shouted. “Probably a dark side thing?”

It seemed at least that his aim could be a little off. And the items in the corridor could give them an advantage. It gave Rey an idea, but she would have to be exact.

“Chewie,” she yelled into the comms. “Open the loading bay doors. You’re going to have to catch us.”

Chewbacca growled.

“Finn, put your helmet back on. We’re going into open space!”

“Are you crazy.”

“We’ve got to kill him without killing us.”

When her helmet was secure, she opened the airlock of the corridor they were in and Rey used the Force to lift a generator towards the direction of Palpatine’s lightning.

A direct hit.

“Jump!” she yelled.

As the pair drifted into space, the generator exploded, setting off further explosions in the space station until the whole place erupted into space.

That should do it.

Just as planned, Chewbacca expertly maneuvered the _Falcon_ to catch them. They drifted into the cargo bay as the doors closed and the area re-pressurized.

Taking a deep breath in relief, they slid to the ground together in exhaustion.


	12. Carnivorous

Rey found herself backed into a corner. She looked around frantically for some clear route for her to escape.

The tendrils drew closer…

She would have laughed if the situation hadn’t been so dire. Of course, she would bring onboard a carnivorous plant. It had seemed harmless enough on-world, but maybe she shouldn’t trust anything that came from a world where rathtars were also native. She assumed it was just one of those plants that ate bugs, but after a couple of hours of being on the _Millennium Falcon,_ the plant proved that that was just a ruse to get everyone to let their guard down. At the scent of flesh, it grew tenfold in size and it didn’t seem to be running out of tendril length anytime soon.

A sound of a blaster told her that either Finn or Chewbacca had found themselves in a similar predicament.

The tendrils brushed against her leg, gently, like it was trying to coax her into giving in. It would be quick, it seemed to tell her. Maybe it wouldn’t even hurt for long.

But then the plant screamed and withdrew itself.

Shocked, Rey looked around to find that R2-D2 had a blow torch out and ready to use. He must have tried to burn the plant and it had worked enough for it to want to protect itself from the pain.

Watching X-9C9 frantically running down the corridor told her that he han’t run into any trouble either.

Could the plant not sense droids? Perhaps, she mused. It didn’t seem to have eyes so it must have some sort of sense to help it find food. Scent perhaps. If it was looking for meat, it wouldn’t be looking for the metal of a droid.

“Artoo,” she asked. “Can you come with me?”

The droid beeped to let her know he was right beside her and he rolled close to her as they navigated their way down the corridor.

A blaster bolt zoomed past her, and she jumped to the side in alarm. The growl of Chewbacca that followed was angry, but Finn’s yelling was a mix of fear and profanities.

“Seriously,” he groaned. “Doesn’t this thing give up?”

Chewbacca moaned his opinion: no.

“Finn! Chewie!” she called.

“Rey!” Finn shot at another incoming tendril.

Without being asked to, R2 rolled over to it and set his blowtorch on it. Immediately, it withdrew.

“It can’t see droids,” she explained to her friends. “Artoo can lead the way, but we got to get to its body. That’s the only way to kill it, I think.”

Chewbacca nodded and followed the droid, Finn and Rey took the rear, Finn’s blaster aimed and ready.

The little droid led them to the crew’s quarters, where Rey had placed the plant. The door had been jammed open by a number of tendrils, which Rey was able to blast back with the Force. Her lightsaber was in this room somewhere…

Finn and Chewbacca shot at the open maw of the plant, its rows of teeth a warning to them. It seemed to groan with pain and it thrashed its tendrils around.

The pyramid they found in the asylum fell to the ground. It did not open, but the sound it made with the impact was an ear-shattering screech. Everyone held their hands to their ears for a moment, even the plant seemed to retract at the noise. Rey took this as her chance.

With the Force, she pushed the head of the plant up against the wall. “Finn! Chewie!” she shouted.

They understood what she wanted and shot the plant. The impact of the blaster bolts severed it from its body and after a moment of writhing in pain, the tendrils went still and slumped to the floor. When Rey released it, the head fell with a sickly, wet _thump._

“Agh!” Finn jumped away as the head made contact with his leg. “Gross!”

The pyramid still screeched and Rey went to scoop it up. Almost immediately, it stopped. She turned it in her hands, inspecting it.

Rey bowed her head. “Sorry guys,” she said. “I guess I need to quit bringing exotic plants onboard.”

“I’ll say.” Finn held up his wrist. A bruised had formed on it. Rey guessed it was from where the tendrils had grabbed him before.

She winced. “Sorry, Finn.” She placed the pyramid back on the end table of the cabin. “I’ll get some ice for that.”


	13. Experiment

Finn hadn’t wanted to interrupt Rey from meditation, but it was growing late and he and Chewbacca had made dinner and were worried about her. It wasn’t like Rey to skip on a meal. If anything, she was the one to remind _them_ of what time it was.

Habits and fears die hard.

He knocked gently on the door of the crew’s quarters and scrunched his forehead when she did not answer him. Perhaps, he thought, she did not hear him. So he opted to walk in as quietly as he could.

It turned out that Rey was not meditating after all. He found her on the floor, legs crossed and her tongue sticking out of the corner of her lips as she stared at the pyramid they found back in the asylum and flipped it over in her hands.

“Any luck figuring out what that is?” he asked.

She shook her head and with a sigh, answered him, “No. It’s shut tight.”

The mystery surrounding the pyramid only grew after it emitted that screech that bothered the carnivorous plant a few days before. Finn and Rey had spent their nights since inspecting the object and trying to find information on it via the HoloNet. They found nothing.

They knew it was supposed to open or make a sound of some sort, but they weren’t sure how to make it work.

But Rey was dedicated to figuring it out.

“The only thing I haven’t tried is to use the Force in some way to try to open in,” she explained. “I’ve thought of it a few times since it was rumored to be a Jedi artifact, but I was scared that I might break it or, you know, make it explode or something.”

“I’ll go get the fire extinguisher,” Finn joked.

With a smile, Rey closed her eyes again and focused on the pyramid. Using the Force, she lifted it into the air and tried to move it around.

Nothing happened.

“Maybe you need to imagine yourself opening it,” Finn suggested.

Opening her eyes wide with realization, she looked over to him. He took the moment to admire the hazel hue of her irises. “Finn, that’s it,” she exclaimed.

“Well, you know, I’m totally a Jedi master. Shhh…” he held a finger to his lips, a gesture to encourage others to stay silent. “It’s a secret.”

She snorted.

This time, she concentrated again and the pyramid began to shake. Determined, Rey kept her focus on the object and after a few moments, the top of the pyramid where all the points met, split apart, opening with a tiny click.

Then, they heard a woman’s voice. Or at least, a recording of one.

 _“My dear,”_ the woman said. _“I want so very much to be with you right now. But I must ask you to hide. Go somewhere safe. The Order has fallen and it is no longer safe for us to be out in the open.”_ There was a pause, and at first, Finn and Rey thought the recording had ended. _“I have never had a better apprentice,”_ the woman started again. _“And I wanted to tell you this when we were together and you were just a little older, but now I fear I might never get a chance to. I want you to know that your mother loves you very much and I know this because I am her.”_

There was a sniffle in the recording. Silence again. Rey leaned her head against Finn’s shoulder as she waited to see if the recording really had ended this time.

Then a flute began to play a slow, gentle tune. A lullaby. Gentle as it was, a sense of sadness washed over Finn as he took in what he had just heard.

When the song ended, Rey removed herself from resting against him and looked him in the face again.

“I think I’m starting to understand what happened in that asylum,” she said.


	14. Infestation

They hadn’t taken notice of the ants at first. Or at least more than they thought they should. Rey knew that these sort of insects were common on this world and always on the lookout for food, so she wasn’t surprised when she found a group hanging around their latest supply run for non-perishable food to take back to the Resistance.

But then the group got bigger and bigger.

She grabbed Finn to show him the problem and he decided that they needed to wait before they loaded the box into the _Falcon’s_ cargo bay. “They can’t get in there,” he tried to assure her. “That container is air-tight. I’ll run into town and get something to kill them.”

While she could see the ants’ signatures in the Force, she didn’t exactly feel bad for needing to kill them. The ants might be doing what they needed to do to survive, but well, so was the Resistance. Pests, she knew, could become a bigger problem if not taken care of right away.

So with Finn gone, Rey decided not to pay the ants much mind and find things to do to help on the _Falcon._

into whatever storage she could find until she heard the crackle of her comm link.

“Finn?” she answered.

 _“Brace yourself, Rey,”_ he warned. _“They’re coming.”_

She was about to ask him what he meant by that, but Finn had already ended the signal.

A buzzing sound caught her attention and she turned to count… four flutterflies in the corridor. Then she found a centipede crawling up her leg, sending shivers up her spine as she shook her leg to throw it off. She whimpered. Bugs she could normally handle, but this was something else.

“Chewie,” she shouted. “I’ve got to close the ramp until Finn gets back. The bugs-"

Chewbacca roared, he sounded annoyed. Rey wondered if he had run into any pests.

“Oh!” exclaimed X-9C9. “I can get that, Miss Rey!”

“Appreciated, Ex-nine,” she said as she was trying to wave off the flutterflies.

Once the ramp had been lifted, Rey decided to go sit in the cockpit for a while. From there, she could see when Finn would return because that would be the likely path he would take.

Only now the viewports were black, darkened by thousands of creepy-crawlies.

“Eww!” Rey actually screamed. 

And the bugs were still getting in. She swatted at them. Shook her body to try to get them off. She winced as she felt her skin be bitten and stung over and over.

She really hoped she wasn’t about to find out she had an allergy to one of the pests…

As she dragged herself up the corridor to try to take shelter in one of the escape pods, she suddenly braced herself against a wall as she heard a dull thump from outside, followed by a series of shaking waves.

The bugs were panicked and they latched on to whatever they could, specifically Rey’s entire body. They almost buried her and she no longer was feeling the pain from their bites and stings.

“Rey!” she heard someone shout.

No, not someone. _Finn._

The ramp was lowered and she heard footsteps as she fell to the floor. Finn, wearing a white hazard suit, followed by similarly-dressed humans, entered the freighter. Finn pulled her up, carrying her outside. She heard the group of humans give orders to lift the other one – she assumed Chewbacca – out.

She expected to be swarmed with insects when she got outside, but was surprised to see none around. At least, none that were alive. The bodies of millions of tiny insects littered the grassy plain.

Finn looked her over, panicked. “We’re going to have to take you to a hospital,” he told her. 

“What happened?” she asked, weakly.

“I explained what was going on when I got to town,” Finn started. “They realized right away what was happening and they got together to help us.” He winced. “Insects here flock to the slightest scent of sugar and now I know why the locals don’t have it as a staple of their diet. The bugs have killed people over it.”

“I think they were about to do that,” Rey pointed out. “My hero.”

“So the town had someone fly over us and drop a bomb over the area to try to kill them.”

“How bad is it?” She meant the state of her body. Finn seemed to understand that.

He winced again. “You look… good.”

_“Finn.”_

“Okay, I think we’re going to be on-world for a while. Let’s just say that.”


	15. Spell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now, some more fluff.

_I put a spell on you_

_Because you’re mine_

“This is fun,” Rey yelled over the blaring music.

The Resistance had contacted them with a mission since they were in the regional cluster of this icy world anyway. They had intel that the First Order was trying to make a deal with the world’s big businesses to secure some sort of chemical weapon, a type of noxious gas that in large, undiluted quantities, could suffocate a town quickly.

Their search led them here, to this party. The locals certainly knew how to throw them with costumes and blaring music. The costumes made it easy for them to blend in, though Finn and Rey could only find two ridiculous and furry costumes on such short notice. Couple’s costumes. Costumes that made them resemble two icy white Wookies or tamer wampas that were based on a creature native to this region.

But at least the costumes made it hard for others to figure out their real appearance.

As they waited for their mark, Finn and Rey decided that it wouldn’t hurt to dance for a while. X-9C9 was wandering around the hallways of the venue, acting like he was there to act as a translator if needed. His coat of gold paint had finally chipped away, revealing a pewter coat underneath. He was as he should be now.

_You know I can’t stand it_

_You’re runnin’ around_

Finn grinned as the pace of the song quickened and he tried to get up. He wasn’t a dancer. Never had a chance to let loose like this back in the First Order. He’d be embarrassed by his ungraceful movements if it wasn’t for the fact that Rey looked to be in the same ship as him. Sometimes, she stumbled and faltered in her step, but she was having fun and that was all that mattered.

He loved to see her like this. He loved to feel like this.

_And I don’t care if you don’t want me_

_I’m yours right now_

But the fun ended too quickly. Their protocol droid partner sent them a signal, telling them that he believed that their mark had arrived.

With a sigh, Finn and Rey composed themselves and got ready to get to work. If everything went well and they didn’t have to flee the scene, Finn made a mental vow to himself to bring Rey back on the dance floor with him later.


	16. Moonlight

Rey had been the one to ask if Finn would be interested in a late night stroll. The sky was clear and the two moons of this world were shining full overhead. It was simply too beautiful of a night to waste.

And so, hand in hand, the pair walked down a paved path made for travelers and hikers, enjoying the crisp air and each other’s company.

“I like this,” Finn sighed. “I like just being with you.”

Rey did not reply back because she wasn’t sure how to. It was too nice of something to ruin with her fumbling over words that could end up being meaningless. But Finn did not take her silence as rejection. He understood her enough by now to know better and her small smile told him enough.

They came to the end of their walk with the _Millennium Falcon_ back into view. Finn sighed at the thought, realizing that he would have been happy to continue the walk for a little while longer. Maybe he would offer to make a small late meal with one of the kits on the freighter. Knowing Rey, she’d offer to help him.

But Rey came to a sudden stop. A loud wailing echoed into the night. It sounded like some sort of animal was out in the woods. Maybe it was hurt.

“Maybe someone’s pet?” he asked Rey, worriedly. There was a residential area nearby and one could only hope.

But Rey began to look around in a panic. She let go of Finn’s hand and clutched her sides as if she were cold.

“I think we need to get inside,” she said.

The howling was getting closer and it didn’t seem like it was coming from a mere house pet anymore. Finn wasn’t sure what could make that sound.

Then Rey was shouting at him.

“Finn. Run.”

He got out of the way just in time. From out of the woods sprang a wolfish creature with six legs. It was hurt, from what he could see. One of its legs limped slightly but the loss of it didn’t seem to affect it much. It still had five other legs to depend on.

It snarled, directing its attention at him.

 _“Finn!”_ Rey held her hands out, waiting to use the Force to push the creature back. Finn was worried that if she did that she’d only make it angrier.

“Wait, Rey,” he ordered. He turned back to the creature, careful not to look it in the eyes in case that turned out to be a threatening gesture. Careful not to let its guard down, he looked at the injured leg one more time.

A piece of metal was sticking through the skin.

“It’s hurt,” he told her. “Look.”

Rey glanced at the leg and gasped. “Oh, poor thing,” she sighed. “Do you think he belongs to someone or…?”

The creature barked at the thought.

“I think it’s intelligent,” said Finn, though he regretted his wording right away. The creature snarled at him. “Do you need help?” he asked it. “We won’t hurt you. We can take you to some sort of doctor.” He glanced over at the residential area.

With a slight whimper and a tired deep breath, the wolfish creature hunched down, laying to the ground with a whimper. Finn took that as a yes.

He looked back at Rey. “Is there something that we can use to carry him? He’s too big like this.”

Rey placed her fingers against her chin as she thought. “I think there’s a thin board in the cargo bay,” she told him. “We could lift him onto that.” Then without another word, she ran back to the freighter.

Finn sat beside the creature, holding out his hand to let it smell him and to try to coax it. It whimpered again.

“You’re gonna be okay,” he whispered.


	17. Tomb

_The curse! Don’t release the curse!_

Rey heard the warnings in her head. As she and Finn scoured the galaxy for a forgotten Jedi, female, possibly with a flute, they came to a promising site on Jedha. The world had been through a lot since the time of the Galactic Republic but after the death and destruction, the handful of survivors of the time of the Empire began to rebuild their home.

She was surprised that this tomb had stayed intact, but perhaps being buried in a tomb a mile underground had its perks.

The locals had buried a Jedi that had hidden here after the fall of the Order. No one remembered her as alive, but some of the elderly recalled their parents telling them a story of how she had come to her final resting place. She had been tracked down by the Empire, murdered in an ally, and in her final breath cursed them for all they had taken from her. The locals, many of them followers of the Force, decided to take her to one of the empty tombs reserved for Jedi that had watched over the old temple on the world. There were none now, and they wanted to give her a proper send off.

But generations later, stories of the curse emerged. They begged Rey and Finn to not enter the tomb. _It’ll get out!_ they cried, like they were about to release some sort of plague. Actually, not a single person mentioned what kind of curse they were about to release.

So the pair decided that it would be best to go to the tomb at night when no one was watching them.

“I don’t want to say that it’s impossible that such a curse exists,” said Finn as he held a glowlight up to light their path. “But I would say that it would be our luck.”

Rey agreed. “But if she’s the Jedi we’re looking for, we might learn more about that asylum. There was something there.”

When they came to the tomb, they stared at the ornate stone that covered the burial site. Rey glanced at the writing etched into it. _Here lies a Jedi, hunted down by the Empire. May her spirit be led to peace by the Force._

“So no one knew her name,” she sighed.

“Guess not.” Finn frowned as he glanced at the writing. “Should we open it?”

With a nod, Rey walked over to the other side of the stone. They counted backwards to cue each other to begin to push. With a dull scraping noise the stone was pushed to the side until they could see inside.

They waited for a moment to see if any curse was to befall them. When nothing happened, they looked inside.

The body was nothing more than a skeleton. Twi’lek by the look of it. Long decomposed, her clothing had begun to disintegrate as time ate away at the fibers. Rey gasped as Finn shined the glowlight at her side. The gleam of metallic was a dead giveaway that she still held her lightsaber.

But what they were looking for was held in the woman’s crossed hands, resting against where her heart once beat. A flute.

“Think it’s her?” asked Finn.

“Maybe,” said Rey. “Should we risk a curse and take the flute?”

Finn gave her a dirty look. “Seems kind of wrong to take something from the dead, isn’t it?”

That brought Rey to pause, but she also realized something else. “If it’s to help us figure out her story, or at least conclude it, I don’t think she’ll mind. We can come back and return it to her later,” she pointed out. Then she stretched to reach into the tomb and gently slipped it away.

They waited again for something to strike them. Nothing happened.

After they situated the stone lid again, they panted to catch their breaths again. Rey looked at the flute and wondered what would happen if she tried use it. Nothing seemed sinister about it at least.

But Finn stopped her thoughts. “Let’s not make it known that we were down here,” he said. “I don’t think we’ll be allowed back if the locals knew.”


	18. Home

They were back at the asylum.

Honestly, it was the last place that Finn wanted to be, but he agreed with Rey that something was amiss there. Whether it was a trick of the Force or the supernatural, he wasn’t sure, but they had clues to what had perhaps transpired there after a little research.

A child had been taken in after being abandoned, deemed unstable by the doctors. She lived there for a couple of years before she died of a fever. At least, that’s what the local announcements had said. There were fears that whatever she got would spread to the other patients but it never came to fruition, causing some local conspiracy theorists to pin the blame on murder by one of the doctors with disgusting tastes. Some even blamed the Empire, believing that the girl was an illegitimate child of a Moff or such and needed to be silenced forever.

But whatever the cause, Rey believed that her spirit may be lingering and that the child might need their help.

Of course, help meant that Rey would be keeping watch with her lightsaber at her side while Finn was stuck with the job of learning the tune from the pyramid object and trying to replicate it on the flute that they took from the tomb on Jedha.

They sat in the darkness for hours, waiting. The place already gave Finn the creeps, but now his skin began to crawl at the slightest of noises that did not come from either of them. They had asked the droids to stay behind this time, in case their presence scared off the child.

And just when they were getting sleepy and about to give up for the night, they heard the sound of footsteps again, growing nearer and nearer.

“Finn, the flute.”

He nodded as he placed the instrument to his lips and began to play. He’d admit that he had been worried by his musical ability. Not exactly musically inclined, he had doubted for a time that he could ever make a sound besides blowing air from the instrument. He had proved himself wrong.

There was an eerie glow in the corner of his eye. Rey gasped, but he kept playing.

“Mama?”

Once the song had ended, Finn turned to see a grotesque apparition. A Twi’lek child perhaps once, but no longer. She had been morphed in her death into something monstrous with strands of tendrils for hair and far too large eyes peeking out from behind them.

Taking a deep breath, Finn held the flute out to the apparition.

The child reached her hands out, unable to touch it but still able to run her hands along the flute’s outline. She took a moment, as if lost in thought.

“You can have it, if you want,” Finn told her.

The child stepped away, shoulders sagging. “Mama,” she said again, though this time with a thoughtful sadness.

Then she walked away and disappeared.

Rey gasped again. “I think she’s gone.”

“That’s it?” Finn couldn’t quite believe it. “No fighting? No using the Force? No exorcism? She’s just gone?”

“I guess so.” Rey paced around the hallway. “She wasn’t a Force ghost like I thought she was. A Force ghost wouldn’t have been warped like that.”

Knitting his eyebrows together, Finn asked, “So she was like, a regular ghost?”

Rey shrugged. “I guess so.”

Sighing, Finn ran his hand through his hair. “Well, still creepy but I’m glad that’s over.” He looked at the flute in his hands. “Let’s get this back to where it belongs.”


	19. Blood

“Are we close?”

The Ithorian nodded. “I think so.”

This had been a most unusual request from Recruitment. It seemed that a group of bounty hunters had expressed interest in aiding the Resistance in exchange for help. When Rey got the message, she was weary of what exactly the help would entail, but even she was now interested.

The group weren’t exactly _bounty_ hunters, rather, they were just hunters. And what they hunted seemed dangerous since encountering one often left someone dead.

This Ithorian had been hunting this creature for months, and now, he was certain that in the heart of this scuzzy city that he was finally close. This had been a job that his family had taken up for generations, he would not let that legacy down.

“It’s an old one,” he said. “Perhaps the oldest I’ve ever encountered. It knows how to cover its tracks and how to vanish when it needs to.”

“Best be cautious, then,” Finn surmised. Unlike Rey, his curiosity ended when he heard the words _Force-sensitive monster that feeds off of brains._ But if this creature had been murdering for centuries, it was best to finally end it.

It was only a few moments later when he found himself effectively pinned down, pressure on all of his limbs.

He looked up at his attacker. It was human in appearance, though Finn had never seen nostrils quite as bulbous on a human before. And while the grayish hue of its skin was not distracting, the two tentacles that extended from the cheeks were.

“You hunters are all so determined,” it whispered in his ear. It leaned in, the coldness of its body shocking Finn’s skin, but despite his initial fear, Finn found that he was unable to struggle, caught in the gaze of the creature.

One of the tentacles unfolded and skimmed the skin of Finn’s cheek in a soothing manner, making its way up to his nostrils. It felt nice, he thought. He wondered what it would feel like to let the creature continue.

But before that could happen, the sudden light of a blue plasma blade protruded through the creature’s chest. It gasped and trembled for a moment, before it stilled and hung limply against the lightsaber.

“That was too close.” Rey shook as she drew her lightsaber away and the creature’s body slumped to the floor, leaving Finn able to move again. He shook himself out of its daze.

He wondered how long that exchange had taken. To him, it felt like it had lasted a long time and when he looked around, he spotted another body on the ground from another creature, obviously one that Rey and the Ithorian had to fight off.

“Kriff, that thing was about to eat me!” he exclaimed.

“Well,” said the Ithorian, “more like suck the juice out of your brain cavity.”

“Ugh…” He stood up and kicked the body of the creature to the side and looked at it once more. “I’m surprised he didn’t go after you, Rey,” he told her honestly. “Usually these things happen to you.”

“They like other Force-sensitives,” the Ithorian hunter explained. “He might have targeted you first with the intention to kill her later.”

Rey nodded. “And you are somewhat Force-sensitive, Finn,” she reminded him. She gripped on to his shoulders. “Too close,” she whispered. She was still shaking.


	20. Memories

It felt like he had been drifting through lightspeed for days. Everything around him felt distorted. Dizzy, even.

Something was wrong.

The _Millennium Falcon_ looked too clean. The walls of the corridors too white and without bits of wire hanging out from the ceiling panels. Cautious that he might be in some sort of simulation, Finn drew his blaster. It felt like something the First Order would do, in any case.

_“Qi’ra!”_

A broken sob filled the room. Startled, Finn turned around, only to find himself in a sketchy old cantina. A man hunched over at the bar counter, clutching his drink as his shoulders heaved in quiet, staccato breaths.

The man was young, but he looked so, so familiar.

“Han?”

A blaster bolt whizzed by him, hitting the wall of the cantina. Finn jumped out of the way and looked for his attacker.

But now he wasn’t in the cantina. Looking at the lush, jungle scenery in front of him, Finn wondered where he was. He looked where he was standing in a small pool of muddy water among reeds. A curious striped animal looked at him before fleeing.

He heard the sound of a blaster go off and he stood too shocked to move.

Above him, he saw a wooden bridge sink with the weight of a group of furry feet traveling, followed by the white boots of stormtroopers. He drew himself a little more into the reeds to get a closer look.

A group of Wookies, chained and cuffed, were being led into a transport with the Empire’s signal gleaming proudly in the sunlight.

“Wait,” said an officer. “There’s one that escaped us.” He pointed to where Finn was standing.

Turning around, Finn heard a growl and saw a Wookie crouched down while trying to hide.

“Chewie?”

But the scenery changed again, cutting into scenes of a darkened room where droids were being worked on. It was a scrap pile where dismembered droids were being laid out.

“I promise, sir, I won’t fail.”

“Ex-nine?”

He was outside again, in front of a burned down building and a droid looking on, waiting. He knew the droid and as much as he called out, R2-D2 would not budge. After a while, he beeped sadly and began to move away.

“Wait, come back!”

Jakku now. He knew the sand dunes and the outpost well enough by sight. A child struggled against the grip of a Croulate, screaming and crying after a transport that was flying away.

Finn knew who the child was right away. Those three buns were a dead giveaway. He wanted to scoop her up and tell her that everything was going to be okay.

“Wait, no! Not my son!”

Sighing, Finn turned around to see what new traumas awaited him.

The planet was grassy, reminding him a little of Dantooine’s plains, though the foliage was all wrong. It was dark and the only thing illuminating the night sky was a series of lights coming from a First Order shuttle.

A woman screamed after it, a gash bleeding from the side of her face, giving her dark skin a wet a shocking glimmer. She was crying as she waved her arms desperately after it.

Then she looked straight at Finn, as if she knew he was there.

The tears in her eyes, the shape of them all too familiar, startled him awake.

He breathed in deeply as he looked around the darkened room of the crew’s quarters on the _Falcon._ Above him, on the top bunk, Rey was sleeping soundly, though her arm dangled off the side.

Finn was unable to lull himself back to sleep that night.


	21. Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've started a new job this week and I wanted to give X-9C9 a nice ending now in case I didn't have a lot of time to write later. There already won't be a prompt for each day of October, but I hope to be able to spare 15 minutes away from my other writing projects in order to keep up with them. If not, I will at least be able to work on a few on the weekend.

“These are the weirdest set of instruction I’ve ever seen,” Finn commented as he looked down at a message save to a datapad.

General Organa sent them to a space center in the Outer Rim to get help from an academic to get a look at a series of codes that the Resistance was trying to bypass. They weren’t quite sure what it was for, but Finn and Rey had suspicions that the Resistance was trying to hack into the systems of the First Order to try to find the locations of all of their major vessels. If it were true, then this could be a game changer for them.

But what was weird was that the instructions to find Dr. Bephorin included a mathematical equation to present to her upon introduction.

“Maybe it’s a code?” suggested Rey.

“Maybe.” Finn usually thought of introductory codes in the form of words though, not numbers.

They wandered down the corridor, finding it surprisingly calm and normal. There were scientists based here to use the facilities as a lab after their journeys to other worlds. Everyone was either pleasant or wanted to be left alone so they could do their research in peace.

They found Dr. Bephorin’s office quite easily, though it was made easier with X-9C9 tagging along. With his help, they were able to get around language barriers in the space station, which made it far more efficient to get around.

“Those biologists were complaining that there are no translator droids onboard,” X-9C9 was shocked. None of their employers or governments wish to provide them one.”

“That’s no good,” said Finn. “With all the different species onboard, I’d think it would be hard to understand everyone.”

They knocked on the office door and were called in.

“Dr. Bephorin?” Finn asked.

The room was heavily situated with monitors and consoles. With all the screens and blue lights in the room, they almost missed who they were looking for.

Though they were trying to be polite, the initial appearance of the academic. Hairless and white skinned, Dr. Bephorin looked skeletal but the triangular eyes sockets were what was the most striking feature. They looked hollow and blank. A walking skeleton, almost.

A Givin.

Finn handed the datapad with the equation to her and she sighed and shook her head.

“General Organa gave me something too easy. The answer is six.” Then she looked at Finn and Rey. “What’s two plus one?”

Puzzled, they answered in unison, “Three?”

She giggled. “Good. You know the basics, at least.” She looked at the two humans and the droid curiously. “So the Jedi and the ex-stormtrooper. The rumors are true.” Then she looked at X-9C9. “And who are you?”

“Ex-nine-cee-nine. Translator droid.”

Bephorin sighed. “We could really use one of those around here.” Then she turned back to Finn and Rey. “I’ve spoken to your general. I know what she wants, I just need the info.”

Finn held up the datapad. “We appreciate it. I can transfer the data to you… somehow…” He looked around the room for a way to transfer over the information from the datapad.

Handing him an external drive, Bephorin waited for him to complete the transfer before taking it back. “That’s all I needed. Tell your general that I’ll take a look at the codes.”

“We can’t thank you enough.” Rey smiled.

The Givin waved her bony hands. “Just keep those Empire-fanatics away from my work and I’ll be the grateful one.”

Their meeting ended. Abruptly. Actually, it wasn’t until there was a long pause of silence that they were even sure they were being asked to leave.

But before they went back to the loading dock, X-9C9 held back, looking almost unsure of himself.

“Actually, Mr. Finn, Miss Rey, perhaps I could find permanent work here, if they are lacking a translator.”

“They would probably appreciate it.” Rey nodded.

“Then I’d like to ask for permission to leave your employment to stay here.”

Laughing, Finn grinned. “You don’t need to ask, Ex-nine. We’ll miss you, but this might be a good place for you to be.”

“Away from the First Order,” Rey agreed.

“Then in that case, I’ll bid you farewell for now,” said the droid. “And I hope that we can meet again one day.”

They were sad to leave the droid that became their friend, but as they walked back to the _Falcon,_ Finn and Rey gently pushed at each other playfully, feeling a little more hopeful about the future.


	22. Fortune

With one less crew member, the _Millennium Falcon_ felt far more quiet than usual. When Rey found out about a carnival in a town from the mossy, rocky world that they had stopped by this time, she thought it would be a nice change to take a break from recruitment and supply runs in order to have some fun. The carnival was an evening event and the night sky was clear and the air was fresh. With lively, colorful lights, the carnival was bustling with activity. And the music. She had never heard music so eccentric and upbeat before.

While R2-D2 decided that he wanted to stick close to the humans, Chewbacca had smelled something particularly delicious and followed his nose to the rows of food stalls. There was chatter about some sort of evening show that had some of the young people particularly excited. Finn and Rey discussed their options, and after learning the time of the show, they decided to check it out after they played games and tried some of the food.

But it didn’t take long after trying a bittersweet brown drink that Rey realized that she was in desperate need of relieving herself. She told Finn to hang around the games while she searched for a bathroom. It didn’t take long, luckily, but as she turned the corner to exit the facility, she spotted a sign that grabbed her interest.

FORTUNES TOLD HERE

It sat outside a deep blue canvas tent that looked welcoming but a little lonely. Peeking inside, she found an old human woman sitting around a small round table. Accompanied by a member of the Yarkora, a species that Rey had thought looked pretty odd, she sat quietly while they enjoyed a cup of tea.

Seeing Rey look in, the old woman smiled. “Come in, my dear.” She gestured for Rey to take the seat that the Yarkora promptly vacated. “My friend won’t mind.” Then she lifted a ceramic jar up and handed it to Rey, instructing her to drop the contents of it on the table. Squeamishly, Rey looked at what to be the entrails of some sort of small creature.

“Is that… a lung?” Her faced wrinkled at the thought.

“It’s better for these to be fresh, presented by the fortune-seeker themselves,” the woman explained. “But in my travels, I have learned that toccats aren’t everywhere and not everyone is a hunter.”

Rey said nothing, fearing that anything she might say could offend the travelers.

The woman inspected the organs and their layout from how they fell. “You came with a group, yes?” When Rey nodded, she continued, satisfied with this answer. “You’ve traveled far. You’ve been hurt. Ah, but your friends are dear and friends they have been to you.” She paused for a moment. “But one is not.”

Suddenly and with a gasp, she reached for Rey, gripping her arm tightly. “By midnight hour, something will change,” she warned.

“Change? Like bad change?” Rey furrowed her brow in thought. Her friends that remained with her on the crew were made up of Chewbacca, R2-D2, and Finn and she could not see either of them betraying that friendship. It wouldn’t make sense.

Unless one was an impostor again.

The woman said nothing.

She placed a couple of credits in the dish next to the fortune teller and thanked her before leaving. Back outside, she decided that the first person she should look for was Finn as she doubted that the First Order could replace him with an exact look alike.

He wasn’t far or hard to find. Now by the food stalls, he waited for her and held a wrapped package in each hand. “I got us some dinner,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind getting some without you. I’m starving.”

“What is it?” she asked, looking at one of the packages.

He laughed. “Not sure I know what it’s called exactly, but it’s some sort of sandwich on what looks to be sweetbread. Vegetarian,” he added. “They looked so fresh.”

Delighted, Rey pointed out a spot clear of moss for them to sit at. As they ate, they discussed where they wanted to go and check out next, Rey had almost forgotten the woman’s warning. There was no way that Finn was the impostor unless he got lucky with food choices. Not many people knew that Rey’s stomach still wasn’t handing heavier meats with seasoning and was preferring meatless options at the moment. Finn figured it out pretty fast once they were on their own and making their own meals.

“Actually, Finn, I need to check over Artoo, first.” She looked over at the droid, who wasn’t far, but he was exploring the closest row of tents.

“Something wrong?” he asked. Then he stopped, eyes wide. “Is it the First Order again?”

“Let’s just say I got tipped off.” Finishing her sandwich, she stood up and went over to drop the wrapping in the closest trash bin. She was very impressed by how clean the carnival seemed to be. Following up, Finn had also finished and soon the two of them went straight over to the droid.

“Hey, Artoo,” Finn asked. “We need to look you over to make sure everything’s in the right place. Do you mind?”

Rey was half-expecting the astromech to get defensive or to fight them off, but R2 complied and waited patiently while the humans searched every nook and cranny in his structure.

They found nothing, and while that made Rey sigh with relief, it also made her even more nervous than before. She searched for Chewbacca in the crowds, tugging Finn along until they found the Wookie sitting awkwardly on a stool too small for him as he hunched over a counter and thoughtfully ate a bowl of noodles.

“You feeling okay, Chewie?” Finn was the one to ask.

Nodding, Chewbacca began to tell a story about how he and Han used to eat these noodles. A staple of Corellia’s worker class human diet. Han used to say that it reminded him of happier days, even though his life on his homeworld had been anything but easy most of the time.

The story really dampened the mood and it was far too detailed for an impostor to convincingly tell.

Which meant…

Rey suddenly felt sick to her stomach.

She watched Finn and his actions for the next hour, observing him and making a note on anything that seemed to be amiss. And the problem was that nothing seemed off either. Finn was very much his usual self as they wandered around the carnival. They laughed as they won prizes from the shooting gallery, Finn winning the biggest prize of a giant yellow Lothcat-thing (Rey thought it was a mascot from a children’s program) and presented it to her and they decided to give it a home in the spare bunk of the crew’s quarters. They grabbed a couple of fruity alcoholic drinks to try that Rey fell in love with, but Finn thought was too sweet. Nothing was wrong, and everything felt right.

But as midnight neared and the crowd gathered to an area overlooking a lake, Rey had another thought.

Finn was a friend to her. That was true. But he wasn’t just that either. Sometimes, she thought of him as more than a friend.

When midnight rang and the locals began to beat against large drums that were situated on a platform in celebration, fireworks were shot over the lake. Bathed in red, blue and green light, something had changed between them, but it was not a cliché like kissing under the fireworks. Instead, Rey leaned her head against his shoulder and Finn wrapped his arm around her waist and leaned into her.

So maybe the fortune teller was right after all.


End file.
